Device for counting cigarettes and similar rod-like articles



C. BEST Sept. 24, 1963 DEVICE FOR COUNTING CIGARETTES AND SIMILAR ROD-LIKE ARTICLES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 20. 1960 Sept. 24., 1963 c, BEST 3,104,754

DEVICE FOR COUNTING CIGARETTES AND SIMILAR ROD-LIKE ARTICLES Filed July 20, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 /0/9.202/22212425 /23456'7a9/0/m/3/46/6/7/234567a W/NVi/WOP MiZmw/m United States Patent 3,104,754 DEVICE FOR CDUNTING CIGARETTES AND SlMlLAR RGD-LIKE ARTICLES Cyril Best, Deptford, London, England, assignor to Molihs Machine Company Limited, a British com- P y Filed July 20, 1960, Ser. No. 44,104 4 Claims. (Cl. 198-40) This invention concerns a device for counting cigarettes and similar rod-like articles and is primarily concerned with a device for use on continuous rod cigarette-making machines.

Most cigarette machines are provided with devices for measuring the weight of the cigarettes produced by the machine and usually these devices are connected to automatic means for regulating the feed rate of the machine so as to keep the cigarettes to a weight as uniform as possible. Some users do not like these elaborate arrangements and prefer to take a number of cigarettes produced by a machine and weigh them on an ordinary scale, repeating this operation from time to time as seems desirable. By periodically taking a batch containing a certain number of cigarettes from the cigarettes produced by the machine, and weighing the batch, a fair indication of the weights of all the cigarettes being produced by the machine can be obtained. If the weight of a batch of cigarettes is not up to .the required standard the operator can adjust the feed rate by manipulating a handle.

Cigarettes produced by a continuous rod machine are usually delivered on to a conveyor band, known as the catcher band, which moves at right-angles to the rod line and many different devices are provided for this purpose among them being a drum or wheel having pockets on its periphery extending parallel to the axis of the wheel. Usually the pockets are made of a fluted shape and in consequence such drums are generally known as fluted drums and this term will be used in the specification to mean any such, or equivalent device. As successive cigarettes pass into successive flutes of the drum, they are eventually brought to a standstill at a sub stantially definite position along the tflutes, by means of some friction device, or stop. In this way a succession of cigarettes is delivered on to the catcher band substantially parallel to one anotoher and substantially in lateral alignment.

According to the invention there is provided a device for counting cigarettes or like rod-shaped articles com prising a fluted drum, means for feeding cigarettes into successive flutes of the drum, a traveling band arranged to receive cigarettes from the drum, and a stop so positioned in a flute as to cause a cigarette arrested thereby to be out of alignment with the remaining cigarettes as delivered to the band. In this way cigarettes will periodically project from the sides of the row on the band and provided the spacings between such projecting cigarettes are suitably chosen it is easy to use these projected cigarettes as markers to determine the number of cigarettes between successive projecting cigarettes. Usually a desired number will include the projected cigarettes and those in between.

The position of the said stops depends largely on the number of flutes on a drum and this is often determined by requirements of the machine not concerned with the present invention and therefore the position of the stops has to be determined by a consideration of the number of flutes in the drum and the desired count of cigarettes.

By long custom it has been established that twentyfive cigarettes weighed together is a very desirable number for estimating what is known as the collective weight, which affords a very fair record of the overall performance of the machine. If cigarettes are being delivered in one row, then it is only necessary to have a drum having, say, twenty-four flutes with one stop in a flute adapted to cause a cigarette delivered to the band to project out of the normal line. In this way there will be a pattern of two projecting cigarettes with twenty-three others between them produced all along the band. For other numbers of flutes the position of the stops can be determined by suitable calculation.

In the example to be described later with reference to the drawing, the drum has twenty-four flutes but successive cigarettes are projected during delivery to the drum .to different distances along alternate flutes so as to provide two rows for delivery to the catcher band. In this case the said projecting stop may be provided on the flutes appertaining to the first row on the catcher band. With the particular number given, if a-projecting stop is provided in one flute and as the drum will have to revolve twice to deliver twenty-four cigarettes to the said first row on the band a group of twenty-five cigarettes on the band will be shown by the first and third projecting cigarettes, the group including said projecting cigarettes. Where possible the number of flutes should be chosen so that the number can easily be divided into suitable factors or sometimes, where this is impossible, another method described later can be used. Of course any other number for a batch may be obtained in a similar manner.

A construction according to the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette delivery device constructed according to Us. Patent No. 3,0395 89, granted June 19, 1962, improved according to this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a diagram representing cigarettes on a catcher band.

FIGURE 3 is a similar diagram of another arrangement of cigarettes on the band.

Referring to the drawings, the cigarette rod passes through a guide tube 1 into a ledger 2 and is cut by a suitable cut-off mechanism, most or" which is hidden behind a guard 3, but the knife itself is shown at 4. Each cut cigarette passes on to a plate 5 under control of a spring 6 and is taken by a wheel 7, having helical grooves in its rim, which feeds it in to the flute of a drum 8 in the required manner, the helix angle of'the grooves in wheel 7 being chosen so that the leading end of the cigarette is moving at the correct speed laterally to coincide with the movement of the fluted drum. The drum 8 rotates in the direction of the arrow shown and there are shields (omitted from the drawing) which confine the cigarettes to the flutes until eventually they are discharged on to the catcher band which is divided by a bar into two parts marked 9 and 10. Each flute is provided with a stop such as 11 which is fixed in the flute and it will be seen that alternate flutes have the stops at difierent positions so that the stops appertaining to the part 9 of the band meet the cigarettes earlier than those appertaining to the part 10. Consequently the cigarettes are delivered in two neat rows each being substantially as indicated by the broken lines 12 in FIGURE 2. It will be apparent that if one of'the stops 11 in FIGURE 1 is made longer, as at 11A, or moved towards the right, the corresponding cigarette will be arrested earlier and will thus project from the orderly row in the manner indicated in FIGURE 2. As mentioned earlier in this particular example there are twenty-four flutes in the drum and alternate cigarettes are arrested by the near and far stops respectively. The projecting stop can be arranged at either position but is preferably at the near side as viewed from the cut-off because the operator will stand just in amen es front of the part 9 of the band. It will be apparent from the above that the twenty-five cigarettes to be selected from the part 9 of the band will be half of the ouput of fifty consecutive cigarettes made by the machine but as it only takes a few seconds to make fifty, the operation of Weighing these twenty-five cigarettes will afford a fairly accurate record of the quality of the output of the machine.

Referring again to FIGURE 2 it will be noted that the group of twenty-five cigarettes defined by the bracket is a symmetrical, easily recognizable group and in general some such arrangement is desirable. The person, usually a girl, normally stationed near the catcher has various tasks to perform and the weighing ought to be performed as speedily as possible so that her attention is not distraoted too much from her other work. Moreover as a weighing operation is really to show the current performance of a machine any adjustment necessary should be made without undue delay. It is-therefore important that she should easily pick up twenty-five cigarettes without error or undue delay and so the symmetrical pattern is of importance.

It then the number of flutes in a drum does not lend itself readily to a count of twenty-five the following arrangement may be made, given by Way of example with respect to a thirty-four flute drum. As this drum is to deliver two rows to the catcher there will be seventeen cigarettes per row per revolution. Thus the alternate flutes along which the cigarettes to constitute the back row are projected can be ignored and for the present purpose the drum can be considered as having only seventeen flutes since only seventeen are operative for the formation of the front row.

Referring now to FIGURE 3 which shows the arrangement or pattern of cigarettes produced on the front row of the catcher band, although the cigarettes are shown close together for convenience of illustration, long stops or the like have been fitted in the first and eighth flute of the seventeen operative flutes, the count starting from any one of these seventeen. The first said stop will cause the first and eighteenth cigarette of the resulting row to project from the row on the band and the second said stop will cause the eighth and twenty-fifth cigarette to project. Thus there will be a pattern on the band of twenty-five cigarettes with tour projecting namely the first, eighth, eighteenth and twenty-fifth. There are six cigarettes in normal position between the first and second projecting cigarettes and again between the third and fourth but between the second and third there are nine in normal position. In FIGURE 3 the cigarettes at the left are numbered 1 to 17, meaning the seventeen delivered to one band row for one revolution of the drum. The numbers then repeat from 1 to 8 inclusive and above this second group or" numbers there are written the numbers 18 to 25 showing that the drum delivers during its second revolution the eighteenth cigarette projected and also the twentyflfth. This arrangement therefore gives an easily recognized pattern so that the girl can rapidly pick up twentyfive without error. i

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by 6 Letters Patent is:

l. A device for counting cigarettes or like rod-shaped articles comprising, a fluted rotatable drum, means for feeding cigarettes lengthwise parallel to the axis of the drum into successive flutes of the drum, a travelling band movable transversely of the drums axis arranged to receive a series of cigarettes from the drum and stops associated with the said flutes to bring cigarettes fed thereinto to rest at defined positions, the stops associated with all but one of a plurality of regularly spaced ones of the said flutes being arranged at similar positions axially of the drum, so that cigarettes delivered to the band from the said all but one of the said plurality of flutes form a row of aligned cigarettes on the :band, and the stop associated with the remaining one flute of said plurality being displaced from the stopsassociated with the others of said i plurality of flutes in a direction axial of the drum-by a distance less than the length of a cigarette, so that a ciga rette from said further flute appears on said band partially projecting from and partially aligned with the said aligned cigarettes forming said row, and, can act as a marker to indicate the limit of a desired count of cigarettes in the said row.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 inwhich the fluted drum is arranged to deliver cigarettes to the band in a single row, said drum having a number of flutes one less than the desired count whereby a cigarette from said further flute will be projected at each revolution of the drum two successive projected cigarettes'constituting the begin- 7 ning and end of the desired count, that is the two projected cigarettes together with those between them constitute said count.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which the fluted drum is arranged to deliver cigarettes to the bandin two side-by-side rows by delivering cigarettes from alternate flutes to said rows in turn, said drum having a number of flutes, one less than the desired count whereby a cigarette from said further flute destined for one row will be projected at each revolution of the drum, the first and third projected cigarettes constituting thebeginning and end of the desired count that is the said first and third projected cigarette together with all those between them constitute said count.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which the fluted drum is arranged to deliver cigarettes to the band in two side-by-side rows by delivering cigarettes from alternate flutes to said rows in turn, said drum having a number of flutes such that the number operative to deliver cigarettes to one row is substantially less than the desired count and wherein two stops arranged to cause cigarettes to project from said row on the band are provided in the flutes constituting the said operative number and so arranged that the first and fourth cigarettes projecting from the row together with the cigarettes between them constitute the desired count.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Rice Nov. 13, 1945 

1. A DEVICE FOR COUNTING CIGARETTES OR LIKE ROD-SHAPED ARTICLES COMPRISING A FLUTED ROTATABLE DRUM, MEANS FOR FEEDING CIGARETTES LENGTHWISE PARALLEL TO THE AXIS OF THE DRUM INTO SUCCESSIVE FLUTES OF THE DRUM, A TRAVELLING BAND MOVABLE TRANSVERSELY OF THE DRUM''S AXIS ARRANGED TO RECEIVE A SERIES OF CIGARETTES FROM THE DRUM AND STOPS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SAID FLUTES TO BRING CIGARETTES FED THEREINTO TO REST AT DEFINED POSITIONS, THE STOPS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL BUT ONE OF A PLURALITY OF REGULARLY SPACED ONES OF THE SAID FLUTES BEING ARRANGED AT SIMILAR POSITIONS AXIALLY OF THE DRUM, SO THAT CIGARETTES DELIVERED TO THE BAND FROM THE SAID ALL BUT ONE OF THE SAID PLURALITY OF FLUTES FORM A ROW OF ALIGNED CIGARETTES ON THE BAND, AND THE STOP ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMAINING ONE FLUTE OF SAID PLURALITY BEING DISPLACED FROM THE STOPS ASSOCIATED WITH THE OTHERS OF SAID PLURALITY OF FLUTES IN A DIRECTION AXIAL OF THE DRUM BY A DISTANCE LESS THAN THE LENGTH OF A CIGARETTE, SO THAT A CIGARETTE FROM SAID FURTHER FLUTE APPEARS ON SAID BAND PARTIALLY PROJECTING FROM AND PARTIALLY ALIGNED WITH THE SAID ALIGNED CIGARETTES FORMING SAID ROW, AND, CAN ACT AS A MARKER TO INDICATE THE LIMIT OF A DESIRED COUNT OF CIGARETTES IN THE SAID ROW. 